We begin again in At Tuwani, where CPT has their main operation which I explained in my earlier post. We did school patrol again at the crack of dawn, and luckily there was no conflicts once again. We did have some settlers in a suv drive by very slowly on a road about 300 feet away from where we were. That was a little bit sketchy, but they ended up driving into the trees.
The CPT team in Tuwani (above). This photo includes our delegation leader (far left) and two gals from Operation Dove (far right) who have been stationed with the CPT folk in Tuwani. And one of the local members received more lovin’ than it’s probably seen in its whole life (the cat below).
For anyone wondering what a settlement looks like, the above photo is of one of the largest settlements in the West Bank, just outside of Bethlehem. It’s called Efrat. It is a fairly large eye-sore…how does the saying go… a city on a (stolen) hill cannot be hidden? And if the folks inside the settlement didn’t feel safe enough with the armed military, gaurded entrance gates, and walls surrounding all of the illegal settlement (once again, all settlements are illegal under UN international law), the below photo shows the fenced off path where the 25 foot security wall will be built to further insulate the settlers from any contact with Palestinians (who are often referred to as “non-Jews”, and also hits close to home when one reflects on folks saying others are “non-Christian”).
Above we met and had lunch with a Palestinian organization called Wi’am. They do conflict resolution for groups of people, among many other things. I would highly reccomend checking their site out if you are interested in what they are doing. Following the meeting we walked through the streets, passing a random stray horse with no owner in sight.
A few of us decided to go for a walk to the Church of the Nativity. Below you can see the hole in which Jesus was apparently born. It was weird to see this sight (as well as many other of the “holy sights” so embelished, with a building established on top of each one). I was sort of reminded of when Jesus flipped the tables and drove out the cattle (tourists?!).
That concluded Day 6, I’ll be back with more soon.
by Joel
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